The 34-year-old man charged with shooting and critically wounding an off-duty Baltimore police officer this year has been indicted in federal court on drug and weapons charges, according to court records unsealed this week.

Gregg Thomas was arrested in March, accused of shooting Sgt. Keith Mcneill outside an auto repair shop in East Baltimore. At the time, Thomas' brother, Lamont Thomas, was facing federal charges after being pulled over by police who allege they found drugs in his vehicle.

@jomamma2 Do you honestly believe that legalization would do anything? First of all, the US is best friends with Afghanistan and Columbia. I wonder how much money they both make monthly. Secondly, the streets would be in an uproar, once they couldn't make their money. This will never...

The new charges against Gregg Thomas were filed as a superseding indictment in the case against Lamont Thomas and a man named Tyrone Robert Bailey. Also charged in the new indictment is Deshawn Steven Yarborough.

Gregg Thomas' attorney in the attempted-murder case, Janice Bledsoe, said her client is accused of having a minor role in a case that involves wiretaps, but she has not reviewed the evidence and declined to comment further.

Prosecutors accuse Yarborough and Bailey of conspiring to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, while Lamont and Gregg Thomas are charged with conspiring to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

Gregg Thomas additionally faces a charge that on March 15 — the day he is accused of shooting Mcneill — he was found in possession of a loaded Smith & Wesson .45-caliber handgun with an obliterated serial number, along with nearly 100 rounds of ammunition for different weapons.

Yarborough also is charged with being in possession of 16 rounds of .45-caliber ammunition a month later, according to documents.

David Solomon, an attorney representing Yarborough, said he was receiving the evidence and could not comment.

Days before Mcneill was shot, Lamont Thomas was pulled over for driving nine miles over the speed limit as he and Bailey drove along Interstate 95 in Cecil County.

State troopers found 4 kilograms of cocaine in a "trap" — a hidden compartment that can be electronically opened — in the seat back of the rear bench seat of the 2003 Ford F-150 pickup. In the Baltimore area, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says, a kilogram of cocaine is worth $35,000 to $40,000 on the street.

A motive for the shooting of Mcneill, a 19-year veteran, has not been revealed. Mcneill, who recently was released from the hospital, was off duty and visiting a friend's auto shop at the time of the shooting.

Thomas has said he is innocent of the shooting. Amid a citywide manhunt, he turned himself in to police to face charges of attempted murder.

By the time Barbara Mikulski ran for Congress in 1976, you could see the scorched earth of the battles she and others had fought against a federal highway plan that would have turned downtown Baltimore and some of its best neighborhoods into an ugly savannah of concrete.